Flexible retainer for car sides



July 31, 1956 D. w. PARKER FLEXIBLE RETAINER FOR CAR SIDES Filed Nov. 10, 1955 FIE] INVENTOR. DONALD H. PAR/(ER, BY. {9 2 ,j 9

his Attorney.

United fittes Fate This invention relates to a retainer for preventing spillage of coke from quenching cars.

In by-product coke plants a single quenching car serves two or three coke oven batteries. This car runs on a standard gauge railroad track parallel to the coke side of the ovens. Coke is pushed from the dilferent ovens in the batteries in a predetermined sequence. The doors are removed from both sides of an oven from which coke is to be pushed, and a coke guide is placed over the door opening on the coke side. The quenching car is spotted opposite this guide. A pusher machine on the other side of the oven then pushes newly finished coke from the oven through the coke guide and into the quenching car. Thereafter this car transports the coke to a quenching station, and then to a coke wharf where it is dumped. The usual quenching car has a steeply sloping bottom to facilitate dumping, and the side adjacent the ovens is of less height than the opposite side.

The intent in loading a quenching car is to fill the car uniformly very little higher than the sides. However, in practice the operator cannot always see What occurs, and the load often has hills and valleys. When an obstruction adjacent the track contacts a high spot in such a load, it shoves most of the excess into a low spot, in effect leveling the load, but a few pieces bounce around and may drop off the car onto the tracks. Over a period these pieces produce a substantial accumulation. The extent to which the car walls can be built up is necessary limited by the presence of the same obstructions.

An object of the present invention is to provide retainers which prevent coke from spilling off the low side and lower portions of the end walls of a quenching car, and yet are flexible to allow the car to pass obstructions.

A more specific object is to provide in combination with a quenching car a set of flexible retainers which extend above the low side and the lower portions of the end walls and thus prevent coke from spilling, but which readily yield if they strike an obstruction.

In accomplishing these and other objects of the invention, I have provided improved details of structure, a preferred form of which is shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure l is a perspective view of the coke side of a coke oven battery and of a quenching car equipped with retainers in accordance with my invention;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary side elevational view of the upper edge of the car taken on line II-II of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a vertical section on line III-III of Figure 1 and Figure 4 is a vertical section on line IV--IV of Fig ure 1.

Figure 1 shows the coke side of a battery of by-product coke ovens 10. A bench 12 extends alongside the ovens and supports a coke guide 13, which can be positioned opposite any of the ovens. The door of one oven is shown removed and the guide is positioned over the opening thereof. A quenching car 14 runs alongside the battery on rails 15, and is spotted opposite the coke guide to receive coke pushed from the open oven. The car has the usual sloping bottom 16, a relatively high side wall 17 on the side away from the ovens, and end ice walls 18. The side wall contains door 19 through which coke can be dumped. The upper edge of the slop ing bottom 16 is adjacent the ovens and forms the low side of the car. The upper edges of the end walls 18 slope uniformly from the high side to the low side. Clearance at the low side is restricted by the bench 12 and guide 13.

In accordance with the present invention, a retainer 20 is fixed along the upper edge of the low side of the car, and retainers 21 are fixed to the upper edges of the end walls 18 along the lower portions thereof. The retainer 20 includes a series of bars 22, each of which carries a plurality of upstanding flexible spring wires 23 permanently fastened thereto (Figure 2). Each retainer 21 is similarly formed, but includes only one bar, and its wires are of diminishing height toward the higher portion of the end walls (Figure 3). The retainer 20 also includes brackets 24 which mount the bars 22 on the car. In the construction illustrated, each bar 22 has a pair of brackets 24 adjacent its opposite ends. Each bracket is of L-shape in plan and has a leg which is bolted to the end portion of the bar and a leg at right angles thereto which is bolted to a stiffener on the underside of the sloping bottom 16, but obviously the specific attaching means is subject to variation. Each retainer 21 includes L-shaped brackets 25 which are bolted to its bar and to a horizontal flange on the end of the car (Figure 4).

The bars of the retainers 2t) and 21 do not extend appreciably above the walls to which they are attached. However, the wires extend approximately to the height of the high side wall 17. Consequently these wires tend to prevent coke from high spots in a normally loaded car from spilling over the low walls, for example when the car runs under an obstruction. The flexibility in these wires enables them to yield when they strike an obstruction so that no parts are broken and movement of the car is not impeded.

While I have shown and described only a single embodiment of the invention, it is apparent that modifications may arise. Therefore I do not wish to be limited to the disclosure set forth but only by the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a car which has a relatively high side and a relatively low side, the combination with said low side of a retainer comprising mounting means fixed adjacent the upper edge thereof, and a plurality of upstanding flexible spring wires fixed to said mounting means and extending to approximately the height of said high side.

2. In a quenching car which has a sloping bottom, a relatively high side wall, the upper edge of said bottom forming a relatively low side opposite said side wall, and end walls whose upper edges slope from said side wall to said relatively low side, the combination with said bottom and said end walls of retainers including bars rigidly afhxed to said bottom adjacent the edge which forms the low side and to the upper edges of said end walls along the lower portions thereof, the maximum, height of said bars being approximately that of the low side of the car, and flexible wires fixed to said bars and extending upwardly therefrom, the maximum height of said wires being approximately that of said side wall.

3. A combination as defined in claim 2 in which the retainer along the low side is formed of a series of bars and brackets attaching said bars to the bottom, and each retainer along the end wall is formed of a single bar and brackets attaching it to the wall, the wires on the end wall retainers being of diminishing height toward said side wall.

No references cited. 

